Philippines Regulators To Increase Service Charges

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) is looking to increase the rates of most of its services. These rate hikes will see the cost of most, if not all, of CAAP’s services increase tenfold. Industry groups such as the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) welcomed the plan, noting that the CAAP has not raised rates since 1994.

Under the new proposed rates, the issuance of annual air operator certificate (AOC) would increase from PHP6,500 ($122) to PHP62,000 ($1,172). Domestic flights, such as demonstration or tests flights, of foreign-registered aircraft will rise from PHP2,500 ($47.35) and PHP250 ($4.73) processing fee to PHP24,000 ($454.54) and PHP2,400 ($45.45), respectively.

AsBAA supported the move, saying it believes the fare hike will improve the country’s aviation safety standards, but recommended that it be implemented in a staggered manner. “The last increase of the user fees of the Philippine government was 25 years ago and it is time that user fees are being adjusted to reflect the tasks CAAP must perform to uphold international standards of aviation safety,” said AsBAA. “With the increase of user fees, CAAP can now hire additional qualified and trained flight operations and airworthiness Inspectors and train them well to develop and improve systems in keeping with ever-evolving international safety standards.”